Director : Higuchinsky
Cast : Eriko Hatsume, Fhi Fan, HInako Saeki Eun-Kyung Shin, Keiko Takahashi and Ren Osugi

Synopsis
The inhabitants of a small Japanese seaside town come under the influence of a strange force that causes an obsession with spiral forms. Kirie, a young schoolgirl, is the first to notice the strange behavior in friends and neighbors and is powerless to prevent the obsession that is overwhelming everyone around her. Eventually the townspeople begin descending on a self-inflicted and self-perpetuating spiral of terror.

Review
by Edward Tang

The word Uzumaki means spiral, which is the main point of this film. An entire town starts to become obsessed with the spiral, which eventually leads to their untimely death. What succeeds is the plot of this film, one that I haven’t ever heard of and probably won’t hear of again. But the plot stays on this one subject, and even when one of the characters finds out some knowledge about what is happening, he is later killed in a horrible car crash. Almost like making the fact that the spiral’s point is to capture and destroy with known horrible results. The direction is crisp and that’s a complete fact. Even though the film has some truly interesting subjects, even the more subtle shots of spirals that simply fall into the background, give us something extra. As we are taken through this story, everybody is killed off. It’s almost like a drain effect, you put something in it, and it will consume it eventually, no matter how long it takes.

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Director : Sakichi Sato
Cast : Tadanobu Asano and Sho Aikawa

Review
by Edward Tang

Sakichi Sato is a f*cking maniac. He is the very same man who penned the ultra-bizarre (and excellent) Takashi Miike flicks Ichi the Killer and Gozu. Speaking of such movies, an actor from each of them decided to appear in this. The first one is the charismatic Sho Aikawa who was just so damn cool to look at in the Dead or Alive movies and overall is underrated when it comes to the acting circle. Then we’ve got probably one of the most well known Japanese actors out there in Tadanobu Asano who can be great without saying a single world. What a combination!

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Director : Shin Togashi
Producer : Kanjiro Sakura
Cast : Shosuke Ikematsu, Yu Aoi, Yuko Nakazawa, Akiro Emoto

Synopsis
Based on the classic postwar manga anime series, TETSUJIN 28: THE MOVIE comes from the creator of GIANT ROBO. In the movie, Tokyo gets attacked by an enormous robot called the Black Ox. Powered by a cyber-terrorist with plans for revenge, the Black Ox is so strong even the whole Japanese police force can’t stand up to it. A savior comes in the most unlikely package of elementary school student Shotaro who, after receiving a mysterious phone call from an older man in possession of an even stronger killer robot, comes to the city’s rescue. But even with the Tetsujin 28 by his side, Shotaro may not be strong enough to defeat the Black Ox.  

Review
by Edmund Yeo

Based on an old cartoon series (known to the West as Gigantor) created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Tetsujin 28 is the first live-action feature I can think of that has actual mechas in it since the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie (ah, nostalgia!). Which is cool, since I do like my dose of anime giant robots (anything but Gundam, though, never recovered from the trauma I had after watching Gundam Wing back when I was a kid…).

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Director : Shinsuke Sato
Action Director : Donnie Yen
Cast :  Hideaki Ito, Yumiko Shaku, Yoichi Numata, Kyusaka Shimada, Yoko Chosokabe, Yoko Maki and Naomasa Musaka.

Synopsis
In the near future, Japan is ruled once more by a monarchy. But, rebels opposed to this rule seek to overthrow the government. The House of Takemikazuchi, a band of assassins is hired by the government to suppress the rebels. As a conspiracy from within signals the shadowy organization’s impending demise, Yuki, the last of the Takemikazuchi bloodline befriends one of the rebels and seeks revenge against the group’s leader.

Review
by Edward Tang

Here’s a film that shows that even with good fight choreography, the film can still suck on account of plain boredom, and just horrible story telling. Being a fan of Donnie Yen, I do feel that he delivered on the side of action, but everything else in this film needed a tune up. The story was choppy, the acting was over dramatic and dull, and the music got on my last nerve. So does the action save the film? In a small way, it doesn’t make the film horrid to watch, but beware of any scene that isn’t action, it is your basic bore of a story, a bunch of pointless dialog mixed in with unbelievable connections between characters. I can’t recommend this film solely on the purpose, that it didn’t deliver anything to make it stand out. I got bored with this film quick, especially during a sequence in which Takashi and Yuki are chatting about some stupid feelings, something about having a rough life up until this point. I did see where they were going, but it was a hard journey to follow.

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Director : Gen Sekiguchii
Cast : Tadanobu Asano, Reika Hashimoto, Kyoko Koizumi, Hiroshi Abe, Ittoku Kichibe, Yumi Asou, Jai West, Kanji Tsuda, Yoshiyuki Morishita, Yoshiyoshi Awakawa, Vinnie Jones, & Sonny Chiba.

Synopsis
A man continually trying and failing to get his wife to stay dead; a self-absorbed ad agency creative director who comes up with one unworkably inane idea after another; an English hitman who only wants to know everyone’s function in life; and an unfortunate office worker and father whose brain is left scrambled after a stage hypnotist is murdered in mid-performance. Starting off as unrelated plot lines, they intertwine with each other as they continue on their respective ways.

Review
by Liz Brkljac

This extraordinary film is the first outing by director Gen Sekiguchi, and as such highly accomplished. As a label defying film this is a bizarre black comedy with strong elements of crime drama and action, and really quite unlike the usual representatives of any of these borrowed genres.

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Director : Teruo Ishii
Cast : Sonny Chiba, Reiko Ike, Tatsuo Endo, Eizo Kitamura, Fuyuki Murakami, Yutaka Nakajima, Etsuko Shihomi and Akira Shioji.

Synopsis
Terry Sugury is hired to recover one of two tapes containing a formula for making heroin for a price of 200 dollars a pound.

Review
by Edward Tang

It’s awesome when a sequel is just as much fun as the first one. In this case, Street Fighter’s Last Revenge works well, it uses the magic of Sonny Chiba’s art of kickassery and mixes it with a silly plot and good action scenes. What was funny about this fucker was that it completely reminded me of a Mission:Impossible episode, get the stolen tape and along the way use masks to hide your identity. Yes, and I didn’t stutter, life-like masks that are simply pulled off when needed. The plot is it’s usual crappy self, it can be explained in a sentence: SONNY CHIBA KICKS ASS. There you go, and I think that sentence could be used to describe the entire series of Street Fighter films. The characters in this film were extremely bland, no Jesus-looking dudes here. But what makes you slip on the plot and acting, you can make up for with just have a fun time watching this film. There’s a bunch of fight scenes, some boning and everything in between that should satisfy most fans like me, those who likes boobies to go with his violence.

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aka Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken  

Director : Shigehiro Ozaw
Cast : Sonny Chiba, Waichi Yamada, Tony Cetera, Yutaka Nakajima, Teijo Shikeharo, King Stone and Masashi Ishibashi.

Synopsis
Terry is a tough, mercenary, master of martial arts. When an important business magnate dies, leaving billions to his daughter, the Mafia and Yakuza try to hire Terry to kidnap the daughter. When they refuse to meet his exorbitant price, then try to kill him to conceal their secret plans, he promptly offers his services to protect her. Much ultra-violent martial-arts fighting action, as expected, ensues. This also includes a subplot of a family’s blood feud with Terry over a disputed debt.

Review
by Edward Tang

Ah, Sonny Chiba. Searching through his filmography, there are so many great flicks that are as entertaining as hell. As the main character in “Street Fighter”, he plays a badass named Terry. Chiba has been compared mostly to Bruce Lee, and even so, if Bruce hadn’t have died, there was a movie in the works that would have starred both men. Chiba’s style is much more harsh, which leads to such examples as ripping off genitals and the all so famous x-ray shot. The film is all so basic, typical story and the acting is mookishly average. Hell, watching the dubbed version back a few years was horrible, and I truly hated this film because I felt it was too corny. But after taking in the original cut, I could see where some of the love is coming from. The fighting scenes are more than enough to quench my thirst and lust for some kickass, throw down fricken violence.

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aka (Shôgun Iemitsu no ranshin – Gekitotsu)

Director : Yasuo Furuhata
Cast : Sonny Chiba, Ken Ogata, Hu Chien Chiang, Hiroki Matsukata and Hu Jianqiang. Written by Hiro Matsuda and Sadao Nakajima.

Synopsis
An order is given to the young shogun heir, Tachechiyo, to embark on a journey to Edo to participate in an initiation ritual that will mark his passage to manhood. Seven samurai, headed by master swordsman Igo Gyobu (Ken Ogata), are charged with the task of delivering him safely to his destitation. Along their journey, they must combat an advancing army under the command of Iba Shoemon (Sonny Chiba), a vassal of the Shogun. The seven samurai must fight to the death to get Tachechiyo to Edo.

Review
by Edward Tang

“Shogun’s Shadow” is a great thrill ride of a film that took me by surprise as a fast-paced flick that really doesn’t stop to smell the roses. Although Sonny Chiba takes top billing on the DVD box, you can’t really call it his film. The film belongs to the heroic deeds of Ken Ogata, a star in his own right, and just wasn’t as well seen as Chiba was with his Street Fighter series. Ogata with a multi-talented cast get us involved in this simple story, of a group of samurai trying to take a small boy to Edo, but are chased by ruthless assassins who want the young boy dead. The story isn’t all that impressive, and you’ve probably seen it before, but something about the characters made me really get into this film. For you “action fans”, there is a select amount of action here as well, some very good scenes and of course Sonny Chiba and Ken Ogata square off to a great fight in itself.

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